Speakeasy

While many people including myself use Pinterest as a means of escaping our own lives for a few minutes, or hours, to post outfits we would never wear, foods we don’t have the time to cook and houses that cost more than we will ever know, Pinterest does serve as a fast growing and powerful public relations tool.

So, how could a social media site comprised of pages and pages of pictures quite possibly be useful in bolstering brand awareness and driving site traffic? Allow me to skim the surface of “The Power of Pinterest.”

According to the infographic “The Power of Pinterest,” published by PR Newswire, Pinterest has not only grown into the third largest social media platform with over 10 million members, but has surpassed Google+ and LinkedIn in referral traffic.

When it comes to online shopping, Pinterest is a pro with orders averaging around $80, double the price of orders made via Facebook. In fact, Pinterest even tops orders from Google, Amazon.com and Yahoo!, according to an infographic entitled “How Pinterest Drives Online Sales” on PR Newswire.

Here’s how PR pros can use Pinterest effectively:

To an extent, be self serving. Create pins that link directly to your website, infographics or blog and increase your own site traffic.

Spark interest within your industry. Your pins should not only directly relate to your brand or cause, but also to other news going on in similar industries. For example, a Pinterest account for a shoe company, along with pinning their own product, could post and pin images pertaining to exercise, the outdoors and traveling, fashion, health tips, even toe nail polish and any other concept that indirectly relates to feet!

Remember the Golden Rule. Well kind of. Re-pin the pins of other as you would have them re-pin yours. In other words, don’t expect hundreds of followers, and re-pins and likes if you’re not actively liking, repining and following pins yourself.

Apply analytics. Sites such as PinReach and PinPuff can be used to measure the social reach of individual pins and pinners. Analytics sites such as Repinly and Pintics can also be used to analyze your competition and optimize site traffic.

So, while Pinterest is great for endlessly occupying our minds with “pretty things,” it can also, when done properly, be used as an effective PR tool.